Friday, September 4, 2009

Card of the Week: 2001 SP Game Used Edition Aubrey Huff Jersey

Now I'm sure at this point most of you are wondering: "Aubrey Huff as the card of the week?", "Was Luis Castillo unavailable?", "How many bats does Bud have in his belfry?" Or more than likely, "Who cares if it's a jersey patch MLB logo superfractor auto printing plate #1/1, it's Aubrey bleeping Huff!" And those are all valid points; if I stumbled upon a blog and Aubrey Huff was featured as the card of the week I'd get out of there quicker than you can say "the Mariners will contend for a World Series in my lifetime." (a boy can dream) This isn't meant to be offensive to Mr. Huff, he has been a solid major league player for the past 7-8 years (capped off by a .311-34 HR-107 RBI season in 2003), but he's about as exciting as bran flakes and just not all that collectible.

So then why does a nondescript jersey card of Aubrey Huff from 2001 deserve to be named the card of the week? Because with this card, just like Transformers, there is often more than meets the eye. 2001 SP Game Used Edition was the second product behind 2001 Pacific Private Stock to feature a one-per-pack jersey card insert. The set had a huge checklist and featured stars like Ken Griffey Jr, Alex Rodriguez and Frank Thomas, up-and-comers like Rick Ankiel and Dmitri Young, and Hall-of-Famers Mickey Mantle, Joe Dimaggio and Tom Seaver. Huff apparently fit into the up-and-comer category as he was a top prospect for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 2001. Now, take a closer look at that piece of jersey swatch, does that look like a piece of a Devil Ray's jersey? Do you ever remember Tampa Bay sporting pinstripes?

It didn't look right to me, so I scooped it up off eBay for a couple of bucks with shipping. Upon closer examination not only does the card feature a pinstripe, but it also shows considerable wear and aging. It's fairly common knowledge among collectors that manufacturers often make mistakes when creating game-used cards, there have been instances where jersey swatches from one team have ended up with a player from a different team or sometimes swatches are missing altogether. So is that what happened here? There are three old-time Yankees featured in the set: Mickey Mantle, Joe Dimaggio and Roger Maris. Is it possible that UD accidently put a swatch of one of these players in a Aubrey Huff card? It sure looks like it to me, what do you think?